posted Sep 2nd, 2006 - Norway Arcteryx was one more national team that still had to compete at the national championships after representing the Scandinavian country at the World Meet 2006. The travel and competition schedule for Arcteryx was tight and gave the Norwegian team seven days between the end of the competition in Germany and the first jump in Norway.

The Czech team Sky Service and Italy's Sinapsi PD did not have any serious competition at their national championships after the World Meet. This was very different for Norway's national team when they came home, even though the challenger has no plans to threaten Arcteryx' position as the national team.

The DeLand Norgies decided to celebrate a reunion at the Norwegian Nationals 2006 and did this very successfully. The 3-time bronze medal winners at the world meets in 1999, 2001 and 2003, Lise Aune/Nansen, Torstein Valen, Carl-Erik Tuv and Pal Kolbenstvedt, gave Arcteryx a horse race and finished the 6-round meet four points ahead.

NorwayNationals 2006	Rd.1	Rd.2	Rd.3	Rd.4	Rd.5	Rd.6	Total	Average
Team	A-M-10-19	J-L-4-18	3-H-N-14	11-17-9	16-22-8	21-6-20	Total	Average
DeLand Norgies	21	21	19	19	16	17	113	18.8
Arcteryx	21	21	18	19	13	17	109	18.2

The old national team retired after the World Meet 2003 in France, as the NSL News mentioned in yesterday's coverage of the Italian Nationals 2006. However, the Mondial 2003 was surely not the last time that the Norgies caught the attention of the NSL News. The same line-up came already back together for a reunion in 2004 and won with a 21.5 average in August. Arcteryx had just started the team career and posted a 16.3 meet average after eight rounds.

All team members live in Norway now after spending several years on and off in Florida. The old and current line-up made 35 training jumps in the last two years and added 50 jumps before the national championships. Lise Aune/Nansen added that this is also the total number of jumps for Torstein Valen and Pal Kolbenstvedt in the same time period.

The skills for world class skydiving are obviously still there, as the scores show. It was a slow draw, and the 18.8/18.2 averages do not reflect where both teams would stand after a complete 10-round draw. However, Arcteryx is currently one of the best teams in the world and finished with a 21.0 average at the World Meet 2006.

Lise Aune/Nansen was happy with the fun event and compared her team's skydiving with a good old wine: "All good! So it's with skydivers as it is with wine. The older you get the better you are. Gotta love it!"

The same thesis would give the new and very young Norwegian line-up of Arcteryx a lot of time and potential for the future. Arcteryx can look back at very successful three years of 4-way competition, which began with a 15.2 average at the Malevsky Cup 2004 and ended so far with the 21.0 average at the World Meet in August. The NSL News story on March 25 and an interview with the team on April 3 provided detailed Arcteryx information.

The current national team of Norway is not done yet. Arcteryx' Center Outside, Ole Petter Hjelle, mentioned already shortly after the end of the competition in Germany that this was not the end for his team: "We don't know exactly how we will continue, but we know that the team will be back even stronger."

The new Norwegian team might reach the quality of a good aged wine even earlier than the DeLand Norgies. The 5th place in Germany with a 21.0 average and only five/six points behind the bronze/silver medals was a successful result and promises a lot for the Norwegian 4-way future. However, the DeLand Norgies are officially Norway's national 4-way champion of 2006.